McNaughton: A career in the skilled trades is meaningful, lucrative…
Anchor: And in the case of Cynthia Urbano, life changing. The single mother of 4 was a personal support worker before making a career change over 3 years ago.
Urbano: The whole time I kept saying I wanted to do mechanics, I wanted to be a mechanic but it’s not a woman driven trade. And being first generation Italian wasn’t really acceptable.
Anchor: Her time and experience as a PSW led her to reflect on her life.
Urbano: What happens if I never get the opportunity to reply try what I want to do?
Anchor: At the age of 41 Urbano decided to look into it. With the help of Service Ontario, she found a Woman in Trades, Trucking Coach Technician program at St. Clair College.
Urbano: I applied, and I got accepted.
Anchor: Urbano downsized her home, moving closer to school in. order to help finance the career change.
You just save your money and you don’t buy shoes, you buy tools. The government has great incentives for you to go into apprenticeship. They give you grants so it was a no brainer.
She chose to enter the apprenticeship program, she’s taken some courses, she’s here basically working with us, learning with us.
Anchor: According to Labour Minister Monte McNaughton roughly 200,000 jobs a day were going unfilled, costing the Ontario economy roughly 23 billion dollars a year.
McNaughton: One in three journeypersons today is over the age of 55 and the average age of an apprentice in Ontario is 29That’s why we’re moving to introduce the skilled trades at much earlier age.
Anchor: And the pre-apprenticeship programs are helping many others across the province.
In the trades, there’s a job at the end of it. I don’t care what you take, heating and cooling, plumbing, electrician, technicians for all the things we work on… there are jobs.
Anchor: And Urbano encourage high school students to consider the trades.
Urbano: I love it, I learn something new every day. Try it, you might love it. But it’s also some knowledge put under your belt to put on your resume.
Anchor: Bob Bellacicco, CTV News.